Design-Wall Monday!

Not much going sewing-wise, but I did get three more Farmer’s Wife Sampler blocks done. (You can see the blocks I’ve done previously in groups of six blocks under the FWS tab at the top of the page.) Excuse my crooked pictures.

I also got another block prepped for hand applique on my basket BOM (a Moda sampler pattern). I have to add another leaf where that little white paper leaf is towards the center.

Old System: My previous method was three shelves of a large bookcase filled with once-organized larger pieces of fabrics. On my closet shelves, I have plastic totes with specialty fabrics such as batiks, kids’ novelties, western (cowboy-ish), etc. It seems like I do a lot of digging to find what I’m looking for. Then things don’t look so good.

New System: I’m making use of the shelving units I bought at Target. Yarn in the bottom cubbies, yarn-related stuff in the drawers (YEAH!!! All my yarn stuff is together!) Next up is my fat quarters. I’m still adding fat quarters here. Batiks will probably still get their own tote in the closet, and maybe novelties as well.

This week I’ve been folding fabric to make mini-bolts. There are plastic pieces made to accomplish this, but they are pretty pricey for the number of fabric pieces I have to organize. Doing some searching on line, I found a lot of quilters are using comic book boards (used by comic book collectors. Yes, there are other hobbies besides quilting!). They are a piece of cardboard (about tag board weight) measuring 7″ x 10 1/2″. That 10 1/2″ is important, because if you quadruple it, you get 42″, very close to the width of most fabrics. Plus, because they are made to put behind a comic book inside a clear bag, to add rigidity, they are archival quality.

So. Your fabric comes already folded in half lengthwise. Fold it in half again, lengthwise. Lay your mini-bolt core (the comic book board) 3-4″ in from the end, and start wrapping your fabric around the cardboard. Secure with a small pin (I like the applique pins). Stack on end like a book or on its side. Done!

I am filling the shelves in this unit with pieces 3 yards or less. The larger pieces (mostly backing) will go on a shelf in my closet. These are so easy to work with, I can pull a stack off, select what I want, and replace the stack perfectly.

Are you wishing you had a pack of these cardboards? Your potential reward for reading this long post is I am giving away a box of 100 of these comic book boards. (That sounds like a lot, but I used almost 50 that you can see displayed in these shelves!) All you have to do is leave me a comment on this post. One comment per person, please. I will draw one name by random number generator Thursday morning, June 2nd, 8:00 Minnesota time!

12 thoughts on “Design-Wall Monday!”

I love it when stuffs from one type of obession crosses over to another obession…. I have been trying to get a handle on the sewing room for 6 months now and all I have managed to do is move my sewing to the living room!

(Skipping Sandy’s comment in the give-away)
You are soo organized! I love reading all your ideas….as long as I’m in the camper I’m too limited for space so don’t even consider me in the drawing. Know someone else will be able to utilize better.

Love the flower basket applique- the colors look so well together- I haven’t attempted hand applique yet but will probably try it on a quilt I’m making for my son.
Love the organizer for the fabric- I’ve been thinking of something similar- right now I’m using several plastic bins which are stacked but I’m running out of room and will have to buy more and if I want in them I have to keep moving them in and out of the closet! I have a friend who started using the boards and loves them!

I think your basket square is so sweet, I will be back to see the rest of them. I love the organization of your closet, who would have thought of using shoe shelves for fat quarters? I might have to make a trip down to Target myself, and thanks for the tip about comic boards.

I enjoyed seeing the FWS so much. That is the first thing I look up when I get on your site. What organization, it looks great. Gives me the itch to get into my closet in my sewing room and organize that. Maybe when I can get down on my knees again.